Jun. 14, 2013

I've slurped my share of oysters—both East Coast and West Coast varieties, with a squeeze of lemon or lime, a splash of mignonette or Tabasco. But I never thought much about how oysters are born, how they're raised, or even what they eat. That's where Benoit Eudeline comes in. He's the research director at the Taylor Shellfish Farms hatchery in Quilcene, Washington, a tiny town on the Olympic Peninsula. At this cluster of buildings on scenic Dabob Bay, he and his colleagues hatch oysters, mussels, and geoducks, raising them from microscopic larvae into tiny "seeds," which they send off to farms. Here's a look inside and outside the hatchery.